Excavation and foundation work is underway

Since early June, reconstruction of Pearl Street Playground has been underway at the northwest corner of Fulton and Pearl. Crews from the city Parks & Recreation Department kicked off the project with fence and play equipment removals, and are now working to excavate and rebuild the site’s foundations.

The triangular playground has served as a favorite destination for families in the Financial District for years, offering virtually the only jungle gyms and swings around. Now its reconstruction will expand and enhance the site, incorporating a newly de-mapped Little Pearl Street as additional plaza space. It also completes the trio of new green spaces that line Fulton Street; the rebuilt DeLury Square (at Gold Street), and Titanic Park (on the east side of Fulton and Pearl) both reopened in fall 2010.

Like those sister parks, the Pearl Street Playground reconstruction improves pedestrian space along Fulton Street, while its design thematically joins the playground to the area’s waterfront heritage. The playground will feature a continuation of the original water line (marked in the pavement) and a landform/planting bed that evokes the original sandy bluff and drainage route to the East River. Like Titanic Park across the street, the playground also will use an oval form, while an oyster-shaped spray shower and sand-play area is a nod to the oyster middens that once marked Pearl Street. The renovated park is currently expected to open in spring 2012.

The playground reconstruction follows the Department of Design and Construction’s Fulton Street Corridor project, which since 2007 has replaced the water main and other utilities, as well as rebuilt the cross-town thoroughfare block by block from Church to Pearl. That capital project extended eastward to South Street earlier this year and will ramp up following September 11th.

Meanwhile, the Parks Department is also making steady progress on the three East River Slips projects. Both Montgomery and Rutgers Slips are now in the final phases of their reconstructions, on track for completion this summer, including new landscaping, utilities, furniture, and walkways. At Catherine Slip, crews mobilized in spring 2011 to double the pedestrian area, improve the landscaping, and connect to Tanahey Park to the north by winter 2011-2012.